Video games do not use the mind? Lies! Many video games use your mind. All the Ace Attorney games, Professor Layton, and many other games force you to think! Portal has been used to teach physics! You lie, sir, you lie!

Joel Stein? YOU FAIL! While he is an intelligent dude, he is just a big ol' idjit about this particular subject.

I will continue to cheerfully read everything from Dr. Seuss to The Hunger Games to Great Expectations - all in the same day, if I feel like it! I will also continue enjoying Pixar movies!

I don't really care for the belief that kids books/shows should be for kids only, especially the well-written ones...

If I may nudge into your post a bit, I just found another article about being told what not to read:

http://saundramitchell.com/blog/2011/08/20/the-problem-is-not-the-books

It's good to see that he bothered to do some research before forming this opinion, oh wait, no, he didn't 'I have no idea what “The Hunger Games” is like... I don’t know because it’s a book for kids.'

I wonder how he knows it's a book for kids if he's never read it? Personally I think it does have the depth of characterisation that he so blithely assumes it couldn't possess; Peeta's line of 'wanting to die while I'm still me, and not be changed by them' (I forget the exact quote, and can't find my copy of the book) is proof enough of that.

That article is the most infuriating thing I've read in quite some time.

I love how much of a child Stein comes off as in this article. Have you ever met a kid who determinedly only did thing that were considered 'adult' without any true understanding of the word? The article reminds me of this more than anything.
Also, I love that he seems to imply that all 'adult' literature contains heavy and great ideals just by virtue of their target age range. Sturgeon's law applies across the board, and there is just as much schlock for adults as there is for kids.
Besides, 'children's' books come with an awesome community.
I will never give up young adult literature. And I will be less ignorant that Mr. Stein for it.

. . . that reading is some chore we must commit to in order to remain distinguished and refined. Ha.

Ha ha.

Reading is for entertainment. Yes, it (hopefully) makes us think, see from other perspectives, learn new things, but we don;t read because it's our job. We don't read out of some obligation to be (or feel, or appear) intellectual.

We read because it is fun!

The Brony knows this feel. As much as I've grown to detest Narnia over the years, I love C.S. Lewis for that one quote, because he's damn right! I may be an Atheist, but God bless him.

You know, it's funny. These people call us childish, and yet- wait a second!- they're the ones making judgments about us based on our passtimes. To me, maturity isn't a matter of your interests. It's a matter of discretion, responsibility, and behavior. A mature person, for instance, may watch MLP. So can an immature person. The mature person understands why clopfiction is good sporking material and bad dinner conversation, whereas the immature person does not. It's all about being able to behave appropriately for the role you're in and the setting. For instance, being a mature person, I do not bring up fart jokes when I am speaking to a classroom full of students, when I'm their instructor, but I do bring them up while I'm on break with them, enjoying some bonding time and a slice of pizza, when I'm their friend.

Like I said, it's all about whether or not the actions/conversation/whatever is appropriate for the role you're fulfilling and the setting you're in.

Makes me think of this quote:
“Critics who treat ‘adult’ as a term of approval, instead of as a merely descriptive term, cannot be adult themselves. To be concerned about being grown up, to admire the grown up because it is grown up, to blush at the suspicion of being childish; these things are the marks of childhood and adolescence. And in childhood and adolescence they are, in moderation, healthy symptoms. Young things ought to want to grow. But to carry on into middle life or even into early manhood this concern about being adult is a mark of really arrested development. When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.”

― C.S. Lewis

"I appreciate that adults occasionally watch Pixar movies or play video games. That’s fine. Those media don’t require much of your brains."

Yeah, why don't you try playing Professor Layton or deciphering the plot of Chrono Cross or making it through Mother 3 without crying and then say video games don't require much of your brain.

Oh, and apparently, "Books are one of our few chances to learn." I think the phrase "our few chances to learn" pretty much explains this whole article.

*Naked Gun epic facepalm*

There are enough people who say that adults should only watch live action because animation is for children. But YA novels being for children, that's a new thing.

But yeah, all the things have been said and I agree that this is just stupid.